g320 launched its second Impact Report on 7th May 2019 showcasing the difference made by smaller London housing associations. The report was launched by James Murray, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Regeneration at the Greater London Authority and Clare Norton, Chair of g320 and CEO of Peter Bedford Housing Association.
In 2019 g320 has around 70 members:
· Members house a huge range of tenants, including 24% older people and 21% people needing supported housing
· 93% of our tenants are satisfied with their landlord’s overall service, compared to the national average of 74% for housing associations
· Our management costs are reducing although still higher than average
· All of our members see development as a priority
· We manage an average of 450 homes each
· We employ over 1000 people investing directly in our local communities
There is real enthusiasm and commitment from g320 members to step up to the challenge to develop more affordable homes. The work of the g320 has helped to identify some of the barriers – risk appetite, resource, ability to tap into funding – and is using the experience of members, some very small, who have successfully overcome these challenges to help pave the way for other members to follow their example. g320 are developing a toolkit to help map the process and are supported in this by the GLA and some of our partner larger associations.
g320 represents smaller housing associations in London, defined as those with fewer than 1000 homes. g320’s aim is to drive and encourage the positive impact of smaller housing associations on the lives of Londoners. g320 does this by:
· promoting and sharing good practice amongst the small and beautiful associations in the capital;
· being an important source of information and support for all smaller London social landlords;
· helping members to increase their impact by housing more people in high quality housing and providing vital services to communities.
The Impact report is available on g320’s new website and features a wide range of stories from members focusing on their journeys to develop more homes for Londoners and to design opportunities for tenants to be involved in running their landlord. The report also aggregates members performance data (the Regulator of Social Housing’s metrics) and compares to national averages for housing associations.
g320 Chair Clare Norton said: “Smaller housing associations are rooted in local communities and are devoted to meeting communities’ needs. We are all incredibly proud to see how satisfied our tenants are with us as their landlords.”
g320 members are taking positive action to tackle London’s housing crisis, with an extra 49,000-62,000 homes needed each year to 2036 to meet housing need. Households are projected to rise by an additional 1 million by 20361. g320 members are developing homes primarily for social rent in their local communities.